The littering propensities of the general public at beaches and other sandy recreation areas appears to be unlimited as to both the quantity and character of the refuse and litter involved and, also, wholly uncontrollable from any practical standpoint. The unavoidable accumulation of such refuse or debris, when coupled with the accumulation of naturally originating debris such as sea grasses, oversized shells, marine residues, and other and varied water deposited material, has created ever increasing problems for those responsible for the maintenance of cleanliness at such locations. The continually increasing magnitude of such problem with the attendant economic aspects of the continually increasing cost of effecting such debris removal has resulted in a demand for mechanized beach deaning apparatus and numerous expedients have been advanced by the art as proposed solutions to the problem. Most of such expedients operate in such manner as to initially skim or otherwise physically separate a predetermined depth of sand from the surface thereof, then screen or otherwise mechanically separate such sand from the debris contained therein and then subsequently return the screened sand to the beach surface and convey the separated debris to a receptacle for ultimate disposition.
The operational capability and efficiency of apparatus incorporating such mode of operation is, however, inherently limited by the rate at which the screening or other mechanical sand-debris separation step can be effected. Such separation rate is determined, at least in part, by the nature and minimum size of debris whose separation is to be effected, the available area for effecting such separation and by the character and moisture content of the sand being cleaned. However, even with dry sand and under the most favorable operating conditions, the rate of sand-debris separation is normally so severely limited for any reasonably sized apparatus as to so circumscribe the permitted rate of unit advance and consequent operational capability to such a point as to render economically feasible use thereof doubtful at best. Moreover, the rate of sand-debris separation markedly decreases in accord with the moisture condition of the sand and most of such conventionally constructed units approach complete inoperability, from any practical standpoint, when high moisture content sand is to be cleaned.
Current technology removes some residual sand along with the debris. Removing this residual sand from the beach is an environmentally unsound practice. Such residual sand removal increases the time required to clean a beach as dump cycles are increased. Increased material removed from the beach results in increased disposal costs.
Current technology is limited in the depth of deaning and quality of cleaning. If tine penetration is increased the amount of sand and smaller debris removed is increased. It is desirable to keep the smaller debris but not the sand—which cannot be done with the current technology.
Current technology requires a change in cleaning depth by the adjusting of the moldboard to maximize cleaning efficiency under different conditions. When tines penetrate more deeply into the sand the distance the material at the surface of the sand needs to be elevated to reach the elevating portion of the conveyor is reduced. This reduced elevating distance will allow for a reduction on conveyor speed required to clean thus extending machine component life.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks and disadvantages of prior soil cleaning devices.